Marty Claridge (Katherine Heigl) has just moved out to the West with her husband Aaron Claridge (Oliver Macready), who dies in a riding accident shortly after. Marty, expecting her late husband's baby and left with nowhere to go, is in need of a place to stay through the winter. With no other options, she accepts the arrangement offered by widower Clark Davis (Dale Midkiff), who offers to give her a place to stay for the winter and provide her with the fare for the wagon train heading back East in the spring. In exchange, they agree to get married, as he wants her to provide a maternal influence for his young daughter Missie (Skye McCole Bartusiak). The two do not live together as husband and wife but keep separate quarters. Initially, it is not an ideal arrangement for any of them, and at first Marty and Missie do not get along. Marty learns more about "Clark's God" than she ever dreamed, and as the winter season passes, they all start to feel more like a family, and finally Marty and Clark come to realize they're in love, and that Missie has found a new loving mother.
Devout Wild West farmer Clark Davis works his tail off to provide for his wife, sons Aaron and Arnie and daughter Missie. When his doted, equally devoted oldest son Aaron is startled, Clark, who was chopping firewood, accidentally hits his leg with an ax. He had bled to death if wandering youngster Nate hadn't found them, brought them home and taken care of the farm, way above the kids' ability. Gratefull Clark offers Nate an indefinite farmhand job, all the more interesting as Missy and he take to each-other, but she's also courted by classy railroad surveyor. Once recovered, Clark works out Nate is really Willie, the son of local grump Zeke, who left years ago after his kid brother Mattie's tragical death. Decision time arrives for both families.
Missie Davis (January Jones) is a young woman who, although working as a school teacher, spends lots of time reading. Her father has a near-fatal accident but is saved by a mysterious stranger with a troubled past (Logan Bartholomew). When she meets a rich young man who is just like the heroes in the novels she reads (Mackenzie Astin), she is torn between them and has to decide what is really important.
Missie Davis (January Jones) is a young woman who, although working as a school teacher, spends lots of time reading. Her father has a near-fatal accident but is saved by a mysterious stranger with a troubled past (Logan Bartholomew). When she meets a rich young man who is just like the heroes in the novels she reads (Mackenzie Astin), she is torn between them and has to decide what is really important.
Missie's (Erin Cottrell) surprise discovery - her pregnancy - sets her on a new course that's at once thrilling and terrifying. After all the planning and dreaming, she and her husband, Willie (Logan Bartholomew), have headed west in a covered wagon, leaving behind the prairie home of Missie's parents. Later on they meet Jeff Huff and his older brother Sonny. They later make new friends and spend Christmas together. Now, caught between the excitement of the new adventure and the pain of not knowing when she'll see her family again, Missie copes with the challenges and cherishes the rewards of her new homestead.
Missie and Willie LaHaye travel west to Tettsford Junction. Missie is afraid to tell Willie of her pregnancy. When they arrive on their new homestead, it is nothing like what Missie pictured. She meets an Indian woman who becomes her friend, and while praying with her friends she and her friends are tied to the fence and held at gun point by thieves and Missie is forced to show one of the thieves where she put their money but Jeff finds out that Sonny has been a thief all along. Sonny is shot and later dies. That night Missie goes into labor and gives birth to a baby boy named Matthew (after Willie's brother).
During this time, Doros' daughter, Colette, begins to like Willie and Missie's adopted son, Jeff. Collette is an eastern-schooled girl who is home from school on break. Jeff is a well-read young man who must take over for Willie on the ranch. Colette visits the ranch frequently and helps Jeff with his chores. Jeff also visits her at Doros' ranch. Doros secretly discovers this, but does not let on.
As Collette prepares to leave for school, she and Jeff share a kiss. Her father lays a trap for Jeff using the unwitting Colette. Upon her departure, Doros charges Jeff with horse theft and demands that Willie arrest his own son. Doros swears that Jeff stole the horse, but Willie produces Colette, whom Doros thought left for school on the stagecoach. In the end, Clark realizes that his daughter Missie is in great hands with her husband, Willie and returns home.
Missie LaHaye bids a reluctant goodbye at the grave of her late husband Willie, who died two years previously in the line of duty as the sheriff of Tettsford Junction. Even after giving up her job as the town schoolteacher, Missie has found running the ranch on her own overwhelming, so she has resigned herself to letting her son Jeff and his new bride take control of it jointly with her brothers Aaron and Arnie.
Missie and her ten-year-old son Mattie travel back to her hometown to live near the farm of her parents, Clark and Marty Davis. She goes back to teaching school. At her first Sunday service, Missie and Mattie learn from the Pastor that an “Orphan Train” with homeless children in need of good homes will soon arrive from the Children’s Aid Society of New York. Outside the church, Clark introduces Missie to sharp-tongued biddy Mrs. Pettis, who disdains the orphans as "ragamuffins." At the same time, Missie catches the eye of a passing horseman: bachelor Sheriff Zach Tyler, another target of Mrs. Pettis’ vitriol. Claiming that Zach is not a godly man, Mrs. Pettis passes her judgment on him, implying he has a shameful past on the wrong side of the law.
On her way to work, Missie passes the church just as the orphan distribution is underway. Although she is firmly determined not to grant Mattie’s request for a new sibling, she goes in—just in time to witness 14-year-old Belinda behaving belligerently toward the Pettises as they choose eight-year-old Jacob—looking on him as a farm worker rather than a son. Realizing that the lone orphan Belinda will be sent back to the foundling home in New York, Missie volunteers to adopt her.
Unbeknownst to all, Belinda is Jacob’s sister. She kept this secret to prevent potential parents from breaking up siblings because they see her as "too old" to adopt. With Jacob secured in a home nearby, Belinda can figure out a way for them to flee; she believes that their father had given them up for adoption with the full intention of reuniting with them in the near future. She is so sure of this that she resists family life within the loving embrace of Missie, the Davises, Zach, and the community; she sneaks out of Missie’s home nightly to reassure Jacob that soon they will leave together. She becomes more determined after learning that the Pettises beat and starve him.
Missie tells her mother Marty that she feels as if a voice inside told her to adopt Belinda, but she still can’t explain why. Perhaps, says Marty, “God knew that Belinda needed you. And maybe, for some reason you don’t understand yet, you need her.” Zach attempts to court Missie, but she resists, explaining she could never love anyone the way she loved her late husband. Missie then struggles to convince herself that although she is not in love with the sheriff, at least he would make a good marriage partner.
While Missie discusses Belinda’s disturbing nocturnal disappearances with Zach, who has warmed her heart with his kindness toward the young girl, he states he has no faith in God if a child can suffer like Belinda. Later, Missie tells her mother she couldn’t love a man who didn’t share her faith. Zach and Missie discover Jacob’s plight, but are anguished that they can’t rescue him unless he exposes the Pettises, which he won’t out of fear of reprisal. While Missie and Zach appreciate their mutual desire to help the boy, they clash over how to save him. An angry Belinda berates them for their inability to help Jacob, claiming her father will soon come to their aid.
Exasperated by Belinda’s rejection, Missie visits Marty, who reminds her that Missie once had trouble accepting Marty as her stepmother. Sagely, she tells Missie that “loving a child has nothing to do with giving birth” and “being a family is a choice, not necessarily something that just happens because you’re related by blood." Belinda shows Missie a note written by her father. Belinda can’t read, but is sure the note explains how he’ll come back for her and Jacob. Missie then reads her the note, and Belinda learns that her father had actually left them at the orphanage for good.
Later, Zach visits Missie at the school to explain his lack of faith: his fiancée was an innocent victim of murderous bank robbers. Missie then relates the story of her husband’s death.
After Missie again fails to rescue Jacob, Belinda runs away with him into the stormy night. Everyone joins a desperate search for them. Amid the lightning-laden thunderstorm, Zach prays. He then hears a voice over the din and follows it to the abandoned mine where the children have sought shelter. Zach tells Missie it was God’s miracle that guided him in the wilderness, but as she later admits to her father, she doesn’t know how to “let go” of her late husband. Clark tells her love doesn’t die when a person passes away; it stays in a person's heart forever as she moves on to a new life with a new chance for happiness. Missie takes that chance by marrying Zach. They adopt Jacob as well and begin their lives as a family of five.
In a time when and place where women were not usually permitted careers, especially in the medical field, Belinda Tyler (Scout Taylor-Compton) deeply wants to be a doctor and feels that God has called her to be one. She displays her abilities while helping out a local doctor and caring for Mrs. Stafford-Smith (Nancy Linehan Charles),an elderly woman who recently had a stroke.
While Belinda nurses Mrs. Stafford-Smith back to health and helps her regain the use of her right arm, she meets Drew Simpson (Patrick Levis), the nephew of a deceased neighbor. He has come to town to prepare his uncle's farm for sale. Once that's done, he will return to New York to join his father's law practice; he has no wish to stay in this small, unsophisticated town.
But after meeting Belinda, he has second thoughts. She also feels something for him, but her life plan is to become a doctor, then move back home to provide medical care to her family and neighbors. Although most women of the time only married and had children, Belinda wants more. She has a great mind for medicine and also feels called to it by God. She doesn't see how a relationship with Drew would work, especially when Mrs. Stafford-Smith offers to put her through medical school in Boston. She informs Drew of her plan and prepares to leave. But after Belinda's grandfather shares how he recognized his feelings for wife Marty, Drew realizes that he cannot live without Belinda. Meanwhile, Belinda's mother and grandmother counsel her about her future and advise her to pray.
Just as Belinda boards the stagecoach, Drew arrives and tells her he loves her and is willing to practice law in Boston while she's in medical school. Once she becomes a doctor, they will move back to this small town together if that is what she wants. He asks her to marry him.
Knowing she feels the same way about Drew, Belinda finally admits her feelings and accepts his marriage proposal. She and Drew are married with her family and friends present before they move to Boston together.
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